After 1820, passenger traffic to the U.S. started to increase
tremendously, and ships were now being built just for this
passenger traffic. Regular scheduled sailing dates replaced the
earlier practice where the captain would wait until his cargo hold
was full before he sailed. Then.after the 1840's, trans-oceanic
steam powered ships started to replace the sailing vessels which
reduced the travel time from one-or-two months or more to about
two weeks.

Due to the increased number of passengers and the increase in
sickness and deaths in transit, the Federal Government passed
legislation in 1819 to limit the number of passengers on each
ship. The Custom Service was designated to then monitor
immigration. Starting in 1820, Customs Passenger
Lists were prepared by the ship's captain and were filed
with the collector of customs at the port of arrival. These lists
were initially meant to serve for statistical purposes. Except for
a few ports, most of these passenger lists have survived and have
been microfilmed by the National Archives.

4.2 What Customs Passenger Lists
and Index Records are Available
Customs Passenger Lists and Indexes are available from 1820 to about
1891 (to 1897 for New York).

Customs Passenger Lists Microfilm copies of the passenger
lists for these years are available at the National Archives
(NARA), the LDS FHC and libraries. Note that the Customs Passenger Lists were
continued until about 1891 when they were superseded by the Immigration Passenger Lists. For some ports, the Customs
Passenger Lists were continued beyond 1891. For
example, for the Port of New York, copies of the Customs
Passenger Lists were used as a substitute for the Ellis Island
records which were destroyed in the fire of 1897. The surviving customs
passenger lists were microfilmed by the National Archives in the
1940's:

Microfilm
copies are available at the National Archives, the LDS FHC and some
libraries. Online images of these passenger lists are
becoming available on the Internet at web sites such as the
Ellis Islands Database and Ancestry.com. Online transcripts of some passenger lists are
on some websites, such as the Ship Transcriber's Guild, and
others.

Indexes to the Passenger Lists
The WPA prepared indexes for most of the passenger lists in the
1930's. These indexes were microfilmed by NARA. This indexing
project was never completed, resulting in some notable exceptions.
For instance, there are no microfilm indexes for the Port of New
York for the period from 1847 to1897, and for the Port of Boston for
the periods from 1820 to 1847 and 1892 to 1901. Recently,
indexes have become available on the Internet, on CD-Rom, and in
books to fill in these "unindexed" years. Now:

Microfilm
copies of the available indexes are at the National
Archives, the LDS FHC and some libraries. Online indexes are being
added to the Internet every day. See Section
4.3.1CD-Rom's having searchable
indexes are also now available.Books generally specific
to ethnic groups of immigrants and to fill in the unindexed years
.

4.3 Searching These
Records

Step 1
- Find as much information as
possible about your ancestor and his immigration before you
start any search.

Step 1
- Find as much information as possible about your
ancestor

As a minimum, you should know:

Full name,
alternative names or spellings
Approximate year of birth*
Approximate year of arrival*
Port of arrival (use emigration patterns)

Other desirable information
to “weed out” your ancestor from other similar names:

Country, province,
state or town of origin*
Occupation
Names of traveling companions (including ages)
Were they naturalized*

Go
to Table 1, and/or 2 and decide which index to use
to start your search based on the port of arrival, year of
arrival, the type of resource (Free or Paid), origin of passenger,
or other criteriaOn any table, click on the type
of resource (i.e., On-line, CD-Rom, Microfilm or
Book), for instructions on using these resources.Hint:Start your search with only the
surname. Use every variation of names and spellings
if needed.

Step 3
- If you do not initially succeed in finding your ancestor, search as many different indexes
as possible. Each type of resource may use different search
techniques, may have different search criteria, may be based on
different databases, and/or may contain different compilation
errors. Note: If still
unsuccessful, go to Table3
and search the emigration databases if applicable. Click here for more
information about these databases.Step 4
- After you find the ship name and date of arrival for your
ancestor, get the image of the passenger list, using either the
Internet or microfilm. The actual image of the manifest can
possibly show more information about your ancestor, traveling
companions, etc.

Notes:1) The following
tables summarize those indexes which are available for each of the
major US ports in the 1820 to Ca1891 time period.

2)
Until
a few years ago, generally only microfilm
copies of the passenger lists and their indexes were available for
research. Then, Indexes, such as Germans to America,
Italians to America, etc., were published in books to "fill in the gaps"
where microfilm indexes did not exist. Subsequently, these
indexes were published as CD-Rom's.
Now (Since 2001), different indexes to passenger
lists and some passenger lists images are being placed online almost daily.

3)
If
you know the exact date and/or ship of arrival, there is no need
to use the indexes; go directly
to the passenger lists. Hint: However, you may not find a passenger list for that date. If
a ship arrived on a Sunday or Holiday, the Customs Office may
have been closed and then the passenger list may be
filed one or more days later. In that case, search
the lists for the following days. Also, be
aware that the date of arrival as given in contemporary
sources, including naturalization records, is often
incorrect. You may want to broaden your search to
include years on either side of the date given.

4.3.1
Searching on the InternetTables 1 and 2 refer to Indexes to
Passenger List databases that can be accessed from your home
computer. This section provides more information about
these databases. These online databases include
both freely searchable websites and "paid subscription" services.
Hint: Both are
accessible from your home computer, however, you may want to check
nearby genealogical societies, public libraries, and LDS Family
History Centers to determine if they have free access to the
subscription services.

Note: Some of
the indexes on the Internet also have corresponding images of the
actual ships passenger list available online. However, some
of these images may not be of the best quality, and therefore you
may want to look at (and print) the actual images of the
passenger lists using microfilm records. See Section 4.3.3 - for
guidance in searching the microfilm
One-stepSearch Tools by Stephen Morse
http://www.stevemorse.orgIt is recommended that you start with
this outstanding web site to search
the various Island online immigration databases. Its advanced capabilities can
greatly enhance your search and expedite locating an Ellis Island or
other immigarion records. It permits you to broaden your
search by entering only minimal data (e.g. only part of a name), or
narrow your search by entering different parameters (e.g. a date of
arrival or an immigrants ethnic city). Many times this can
directly lead to locating your ancestor's record. Thus achieving a
"one-step" search. One step tools are added frequently so check back for updates. The
tools are free to use, but if the tool is accessing a fee-based
service a subscription to the service is required. Click here for links to Steve Morse
"one-step" and for hints
to search these records.Ellis Island
Passenger Arrivals - 1892 to 1924(Free)-Provides
searchable access to more than 17 million Ellis Island passenger
records covering individuals who entered through New York Harbor
between 1892-1924. Actual images of the passenger
manifests and other information are provided.

Ancestry.com Passenger
and Immigration Lists - (Paid Subscription****) This
subscription also provides access to many other searchable
databases including census records, etc. The most
significant Passenger and Immigration database for this period is
the searchable index of the New York passenger manifests for 1820
to 1957. The images of the New York passenger
manifests for 1820 to 1957. are also available.
Look at list
of
all records included in the Ancestry.com Passenger and
Immigration database -Click
here

****Hint: Contact your
local LDS Family History Center and check whether Ancestry.com
is available online on their computer. (It is now
available FREE at many Family History Centers). You may
also check with local libraries to find if they have Ancestry
Library Edition available.

Immigrant
Ships Transcribers Guild (ISTG)(Free) The ISTG is a group of volunteers
who transcribe ships passenger lists which are then placed on
the ISTG web site. As of this time, more than 7,500
transcriptions of passenger lists from the colonial days up to
the 1900's have been uploaded to that site. The passenger
lists are searchable by: (1) Date, (2) Ship's Name, (3) Port of
Arrival, and (4) Surname.

Finding
Passenger Lists & Immigration Records 1820-1940s -arrivals at US ports from Europe
by Joe Beine This is a very well organized web site with
various guides, and links to help find passenger lists in this time
period. Be sure to check out his on-line catalogs of
NARA and LDS FHL microfilms of passenger manifests.

The Olive Tree
Genealogy by Lorine McGinnis Schulze
A very large genealogy website emphasizing Passenger Lists and
Immigration Records . There are more than 1,700 pages of free
information and links to other free and subscription
sites. Free searchable databases include ships'
passenger lists, military records, Native American Genealogy,
Palatines, Huguenots, Mennonites, USA Genealogy, Canadian Genealogy
and more. There are so many choices that it can be
overwhelming and confusing - allow yourself lots of time to look
around.
Some pages on this site to start with:

TheShipsList by Sue
Swiggum Another large web site including details of
ships; passenger records; contemporary immigration reports;
newspaper records; ship wreck information; ship pictures etc. It
includes over 3500 free web-pages covering US and world-wide
records, with emphasis on Canadian records. There are
numerous searchable databases including Passenger Lists, Company
Fleet Lists, Marriages at Sea, Ship Descriptions and Voyage
Histories, etc. Also, has numerous links to other
immigration web sites.

Mailing Lists
Online
You may also join one of the mailing lists on the Internet and
submit a query.

TheShipsList Mailing List A very active list. Submit queries to find
passenger lists, fleet lists, shipping schedules, ship
descriptions, wreck data, and other information which is not
readily available online. To SUBSCRIBE to TheShipsList
Digest, send e-mail to
TheShipsList-D-REQUEST@rootsweb.com
with the single word subscribe in the message subject and
body. Do NOT include your name, address or any other text in
the message.

The CD-ROM's listed in Tables 1 and 2 are becoming available at many
genealogical libraries and genealogical societies.
CD-ROM's generally have a fully searchable index offering a
variety of different search criteria. The CD-Rom may use
different search criteria and may include somewhat different
database material than that which is in the "equivalent" on-line
database and therefore it may be productive to search the CD's if ou
faild to locate your ancestor on the other sites.

Hint: Generally start your search using
only the surname. A list of passengers having that
common surname and similar spellings is displayed. Then browse
through the names to find one with the desired first name,
age, and or place of origin. If you find an ancestor, you
can find all others coming on that same ship by clicking on the
Search button and then entering the date and ship name in the
search criteria.
You can also search by parts of names (using wildcards) origin,
date of arrival, ship name and other criteria.

Most CD-Rom's are available for purchase from Genealogical.com Look at their web
page for a full description for each CD-Rom, including the lists of
books, and other references that are included on that
CD. Genealogical.com also has a catalog of
hundreds of other genealogical CD-Rom's that may be ordered. Note: To use these
CD-Rom's, either the Family Tree Maker program or the free Family
Archive Viewer program must be installed on your computer. 4.3.3 Using Microfilm

Microfilm copies of the passenger lists are available at
the National Archives (NARA), the LDS FHC, and at some
libraries. The original customs passenger lists and the
indexes generated by the WPA (in the 1930's) were microfilmed by
NARA (in the 1940's) and are now archived as NARA Record Group 36.

Note: Some of the
original records had been lost or destroyed before they were indexed
and microfilmed. There have been efforts to reconstruct the
lost records by using other resources. Some of these
substituted and alternate sources are defined below. Also,
refer to tables 1 and 2 and use the links to other online sites,
especially that of Joe
Beine, to locate other lesser known alternative
sources. Note: You may ask,
"Do any of the original paper records survive?" Most were
destroyed after they were microfilmed. However, one important
collection of original customs passenger paper manifests for the
port of NY does survive. It is presently being inventoried and
"archived" at the NY branch of NARA. Contact the NY branch of
NARA to see if they are available for research if you are interested
in checking these original records .

Table 4 summarizes the Customs
Passenger Lists that are available on microfilm. As
shown, the records for each port are included in one-or-more
microfilm publication, and each publication includes many rolls of
microfilm. For example, Microfilm Publication
M261, "Index to Passenger Lists for the port of NY" consists
of 103 rolls of microfilm. The
NARA catalog may be used to determine the microfilm roll
number of the desired index and/or passenger lists.
This catalog and others that are now online include:

Microfilm
Roll Numbers for USA Passenger Arrival Recordsby Joe Beine. This on-line
catalog is similar to the National Archives catalog, but
also includes the LDS Family History Library microfilm
numbers and other useful informationFamily
History
Library The catalog for the LDS Family History
Library. Use the "LDS FHL" number in table 4 and do a
fiche/film number search of this catalog to easily locate the
appropriate list for the desired port.

As illustrated in
Table 4, many of the passenger lists have been indexed.
There are four steps in searching the indexed
records:1) Starting with
the port of arrival, use a catalog for the index to find the
microfilm roll that has the immigrants name
2) Search that microfilm to find the index card with the
immigrant's name, and take note of the ship name, arrival
date, and other information
3) Locate the microfilm containing that date of arrival using
the catalog
4) Search that microfilm to find the date and that ship's
manifest and then locate the immigrants listing

Click here to link to a step-by-step
example illustrating this procedure.
This example contains samples of catalog pages and scans
of actual index cards that you may find in your
research. (Reminder
- You may want to review Section
2.0
of this Guide for general research guidelines
and for further information on using the National
Archives, the LDS FHC, or a library for research.)

NOTE 1 - BALTIMORE - Customs
passenger lists of Baltimore were kept beginning in January 1820,
but most of the early lists are missing and were reportedly
destroyed by a fire. The following records are included on the
passenger list microfilms.1. Surviving U.S. Customs passenger lists from
1 January 1840 to 28 December 1891.2. Baltimore City lists for 4 September 1833
to 13 June 1866 (with some gaps). During these years, ship masters
were required to submit copies of their passenger lists to the
Mayor of Baltimore. The federal records are supplemented by the
"city lists" which partially replace the missing original lists.3. Cargo manifests from 2 September 1820 to 30
March 1821 and August 1832.

The Quarterly abstracts of Baltimore passenger
lists were first compiled in 1820. Beginning in 1820, U.S. Customs
collectors were required to send quarterly copies of the customs
lists to the U.S. Secretary of State who published transcripts for
Congress. These quarterly abstracts or copies give the time of an
individual's arrival and sometimes the port of embarkation. The
passenger's given names were usually shortened to the initial
letter, but otherwise the information is the same as that found in
the original lists. The abstracts should only be used when the
original list is missing. Note that the abstracts also have
many gaps and some years are missing. Abstracts exist for
1820 - 45, 1848 - 50, 1857 - 69.

NOTE 2 - BOSTON - The only index to passenger lists of vessels
arriving at Boston prior to 1848 is included as part of the
Supplemental Index to Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at
Atlantic and Gulf Coast Ports (Excluding New York), 1820-1874,
National Archives Microfilm Publication M334 (188 rolls) (This
index is listed under Atlantic, Gulf, and Great Lakes Ports in the
table above). Note that the Boston indexes include errors
since no original U. S. Customs passenger lists survive for Boston
prior to 1883, and these indexes were extracted from copies of the
lists, many of which no longer survive.

In addition to the U. S. Customs passenger
lists for Boston (M277) included in table 4, there exist
Massachusetts State Lists for 1848 to 1891. These were
compiled in accordance with a Massachusetts state law requiring a
bond of indemnity or the prepayment of $2.00 for each passenger
who landed from abroad. They are often easier to read and
more accurate than the U.S. Customs lists. They are not
Federal records, they have not been microfilmed, and are
consequently not available at NARA nor at the LDS Family History
Centers. If you find any of your ancestors in the Boston
index (M265), you can obtain a photocopy of the "State List"
Passenger Manifest pages by writing to: (Give the name of the vessel,
and the date of the manifest that you want).

Archives of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts220 Morrissey Blvd.Boston, MA 02125

There are a number of private indexes that have been
compiled by nationality and published in books (Some are now also
online and on CD-Rom). They are available at larger
libraries and libraries having a larger genealogical
collection. If you find your ancestor's name in the
indexes, the date and the ship name and other information is
generally listed. Then, go to the NARA (or LDS) passenger
list catalog and find the microfilm roll number that refers to the
Passenger List for the date found in the index. Then get
that microfilm and search for the applicable passenger list.

Glazier, Ira A. and P. William Filby. Germans to America: Lists
of Passengers Arriving at US. Ports, 1850 to 1887. Multiple
volumes Wilmington, Del, Scholary Resources, Inc. 1988.
Series II have recently been published and include 1840 to
1848 (Click
here for discussion regarding use of these books.) Now
online and on CD-Rom 354

Zimmerman, Gary J. and Marion Wolfert ; German immigrants; lists
of passengers bound from Bremen to New York 1847-1871. 4
volumes. Baltimore : Genealogical Publishing Co., 1985-1993.
Abstracted from National Archives microfilm of passenger lists
of vessels arriving at New York. Only those passengers for
whom a specific place of origin is listed are included in this
work. Now online and on CD-Rom 267 and 354

Portuguese
Passenger Ship Master List Project at the web site
http://www.dholmes.com/ships.html describes a project to
extract the data from ships lists for Portuguese emigrants to
America.

Glazier, Ira A. Migration from the Russian Empire: Lists of
Passengers Arriving at the Port of New York, (Baltimore:
Genealogical Publishing Co., 1995+). A published index
for Russian Empire immigrants is now in progress, covering
Russian (and Polish and Finnish) arrivals at U.S. ports: The
first four volumes contain arrivals for Jan 1875 - May
1889, This ongoing series will continue to 1910.
Now online and on CD-Rom 360

Castle Garden located
at the Battery in lower Manhattan was the immigration center
for the Port of New York prior to Ellis Island opening in
1892.

By all accounts, the
most exciting part of the journey was its end, the day of
arrival, when ships made port and at long last the weary
travelers could land. New York City was the principal port of
entry for immigrants, their path to America determined by
well-established shipping lanes across the Atlantic Ocean. The
nation's largest seaport since the 1820's, New York was also a
major railroad hub that offered access to nearly every part of
the country.

Because of the waves
of newcomers entering the city, New York was the first port to
open an immigration depot - Castle Garden, a massive stone
structure built in 1808 as a fort. It later served as an opera
house until 1855, when New York State authorities transformed
it into a landing station. Castle Garden's primary purpose was
not to inspect, but to protect hapless newcomers from the
crooks, prostitutes, and swindlers, that prowled the piers
looking for easy marks. Within Castle Garden's walls,
immigrants could exchange money, purchase food and rail
tickets, attend to baggage, and obtain information about
boarding houses and employment.

By the time it closed
in 1890, the old depot, run-down and shabby from hard use, had
registered over eight million immigrants. It then was
used as the New York Aquarium for a period of time.
Castle Clinton is now a National Monument.

Louis Alfano's web page - TheImmigration
Experience , provides pictures and a detailed history
and other information about Castle Clinton, Ellis Island,
and Angel Island (Processing Station at San Francisco)